Miss Monochrome The Animation

Hatsune Miku who? It's Miss Monochrome now.

Maybe it's my inexperience with idol shows, but Monochrome has them all beat. Why follow 4-9 girl's, when you can focus on one girls climb to the top?

Story: 6/10
What story, what plot? This has none. Pick any episode and watch it, it's pretty much standalone once you know the three main characters. Also, I'm sure you have four minutes to spare somewhere.

Art: 5/10
Pretty standard art, but the ending sequence got me hooked onto this show like an illegal substance. If you choose to only watch one episode, just skip right to the end and enjoy the music video. ... Bonus points for the 3d motion capture thing they got going on.

Sound: 8/10
Love the auto tune sounding music she sings. Not much more to say there.

Ladies and gents, Hatsune Miku, the anime she deserves.

Anime with only 4 minutes per episode? Meh, that must be pretty bad, since it has no time to hook you up, right? These were my thoughts when I saw Miss Monochrome. Little did I know, I was about to find out I was gravely mistaken. Again, never judge a book by it's cover.

This anime can be descried in one word: wholesome.

Story 9/10

So the premise of the story is about Miss Monochrome trying to become the top idol. Now, i want to be clear on something, I avoid idol themed anime since the story always tends to be generic and the main focus of ... the show is always on the dancing and singing and the key point should always be one dimensional pretty boys or pretty girls having fun. I don't say there is anything wrong with that but I personally find it generic and boring.There are a lot of 12 or 13 episode anime I watched which have the normal time per episode (~24 mins per ep) , anime that had a lot of time to build up a world, a plot and character development and failed to do that. What is amazing about Miss Monochrome is that it succeeded in setting up a plot and a few characters in a format of only 4 minutes per episode. We even have a backstory of the show, which, to be completely honest, blew my mind. This is a really cute and somehow wholesome comedy/slice of life anime that will leave a smile on your face and make you at least giggle, if not laugh, at some scenes.

Art 8/10

Art was pretty. Again for a short anime, I could see the artists did not slack on either backgrounds nor character designs. While it was not breathtaking or anything, I found it pleasing to the eye.

Sound 9/10

There is only one song and it is pretty catchy and nice, I really liked it.

Character 8/10

Characters are all very fun and have their own personalities which is again, amazing to do with only 4 minutes per episode. I know I keep saying 4 minutes per episode, but it really is amazing to do anything in that short amount of time. I loved all the characters and they were really fun to watch :)

Enjoyment 10/10

I really enjoyed this short show. For anyone wondering if they should watch it, I recommend anyone who likes comedy and slice of life to give it a try, it is really short so if you watch an episode or 2, it will only take you like 10 minutes. I really hope this anime will be watched by more people and be noticed more in the future, it really deserves it.

Overall 9/10

What can I say more? I really loved it and I can't thank Horie Yui enough for making Miss Monochrome and inspiring this show.

All I could think of was "Why isn't Miku in this? Why is there a knockoff Miku?" I really don't see the difference between the two as characters, and I honestly find that Miku or any other voice synthesis would have been better than a human in hard autotune acting as an android. How did there even get to be so much Monochrome stuff during this time? They even make a Miku reference when they see a box of leeks! At that point, I started feeling like they were aware of the similarities, whether it was on purpose or not.
I'm also not a big fan ... on Monochrome's design, particularly the torso part, which looks fairly uncomfortable.

The four-minute comedy episodes range from fine to painfully average, though the plot of the first episode irks me. This anime is also quite similar to Idolls, though different enough that I can tell the difference between the two plots. Still, both series try to be wacky but fail for the most part. And yet, I find this anime to be more boring than Idolls, and the plot points in this series kinda feel like they're there for no reason. At least in the first half. The second half does get better when it comes to a cohesive story.

The most interesting thing I find in this show, however, is what happened prior to the start of the series, which is revealed in episode 9. I think that a time loop would have been possible, or at least history would have repeated itself again, if episode 3 ended up having a similar fate. Still, I find that lore about society's past quite remarkable.

I honestly feel like most of the jobs she gets other than being an idol make her feel more fulfilled than being an idol, and it's cool to see what else she can do. However, it is an idol anime, so of course that has to be her goal. Still, if she decides to retire from that, I hope she returns to the things that fulfilled her, like farming and wrestling.

Overall, it's kinda boring, but it did get better over time. Still, I have no idea why there's so much knockoff Miku stuff. Well, I'll see if it gets any better.